All posts for the day August 5th, 2009

I know I’ve written here before my thoughts on the penny. Yes, if I see one on the sidewalk I will pick it up. If I have a penny coming in change at the cash register, yes I do expect the cashier to give it to me.

Some years back at some company I was working more, they gave me a Waterford Crystal bowl for my years of service—five I think. It was a nice gesture, but I’m not into crystal. Paper plates perhaps, but not crystal.

I started dumping pennies into it—also nickels and dimes. Quarters I always save for the bus.

My habit over the past ten years or so has been to let the bowl fill completely up with coins, mostly pennies. When the bowl starts to overflow, I take it with me to Kroger or some other grocery store that has one of those machines where you dump your coins into a tray and the machine totals up your change.

After the dumping of the coins, you get a receipt which tells you how much change you had. With this receipt, you can cash it in on groceries or cash it in for cash.

Over the years, I bet I’ve turned in over $400 in coins—again—mostly pennies.

And I don’t want to hear how I’m giving that machine a percentage of the coins I’ve collected. While I believe in saving pennies, I want to think my time is a little more valuable than sitting at a desk and rolling them up.